Heroin dealer sentenced to 25 years

A Maryland man linked to six drug overdoses, three of them fatal, has been sentenced in U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg to 25 years in prison.

The defendant, Christopher Rojuan Giles, 28, admitted to authorities that he and other co-defendants provided heroin that led to overdose deaths in the Winchester area on Nov. 17, 2013; March 19-20, 2014; and Oct. 10, 2014.

Giles pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute more than 1,000 grams of heroin; more than 280 grams of crack cocaine and more than 280 grams of powder cocaine.

Authorities said Giles and his co-defendants distributed the drugs around Winchester and West Virginia from February 2013 to October 2014.

Authorities said Giles operated out of Baltimore, where he provided heroin to lesser dealers and users of the drug from the Winchester area.

Virginia State Police Supervisory Agent Jay Perry, coordinator of the Northwest Virginia Regional Drug and Gang Task Force, said in an interview the Baltimore-Winchester heroin pipeline has been hard to shut down for more than short periods of time. Heroin users and dealers keeping finding new suppliers to replace those who are arrested and sent to prison.

“The folks we have around here, when they locate a dealer, they kind of all flock to that same dealer,” Perry said. “It’s kind of typical of what we have around here.”

Karl C. Colder, a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in charge of the agency’s Washington, D.C., field division, said in a written statement Thursday that Giles’s drug dealing took a heavy toll on the area.

“The sentencing of Mr. Giles today ends a tragedy that played out in our communities in Western Virginia, affecting dozens of families and loved ones of his victims,” Colder stated. “Mr. Giles will now face the consequences of his actions. Prescription opioids like Oxycotin and hydrocodone are fueling the demand for heroin. This addiction is tearing the fibers of communities, of our families, apart.”